Find a Brick
by A. Windsor
Summary: The events of Season Seven, but slightly tweaked. How does the post 7x13 world work out when Callie drunkenly winds up in Alex Karev's bed instead?
1. Part 1

Title: _Find a Brick_

Author: A. Windsor

Pairing/Characters: Callie/Arizona

Rating: PGish

Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. My one semester of law school could allow me to legalese this a little more, but it also tells me it's pretty useless. So please don't sue; it's not mine, I'm just playing!

Series: Standalone AU

Summary: The events of Season Seven, but slightly tweaked. How does the post 7x13 world work out when Callie drunkenly winds up in Alex Karev's bed instead?

Author's Note: Beta'd by the utterly spectacularly weirdy reindeer, roughian. Coached by the ever patient strandedinaber. I know there are lots of "Karev is the sperm donor" fics out there, but I haven't seen the Karev is the Season 7 baby daddy. So here goes nothing?

* * *

><p>"Wait. You're what?"<p>

"Karev, you heard me," Callie pleads, fighting back a wave of tears. She feels like she hasn't stopped crying in days, hand pressed instinctively to her belly.

"Shit. I'm just a resident. I can't afford-."

Alex feels sick to his stomach, feels his world tilt and the cubbies of the residents' lounge swim before his eyes. He grabs the bench underneath him, knuckles white as he seeks to center himself.

"Alex. I'm not asking you for money. I'm not asking you for anything. You... have a right to know."

"Shit."

"You said that."

"We were careful, right? I know we were drunk, but I'm careful about this!"

Callie grins ruefully. That night, which had started as good-natured complaining about the woman who chose Africa over them, with much tequila involved, is pretty freaking blurry to her, but she is pretty sure they were careful, whatever good that did them.

"Well, we beat the odds. Look, you can have whatever role you want in this kid's life, Karev. I'm not asking for anything, but I don't want to keep you from anything. You can be the dad."

Pure panic crosses the resident's face.

"Or you can be the fun uncle. Or you can be some peds doc we see at the hospital sometimes. I just – I might start to show soon, and I just told Arizona-."

"Robbins. Shit! Robbins. Are you back with Robbins?"

"I – I don't know. Maybe? I told her, and she cried, and... she hasn't left yet."

"And you told her it's mine?"

"Yes."

"Well, I hope you and the baby are really happy, 'cause she's gonna kill me."

"Alex. She's not going to kill you."

"Yes, she is!"

"She's not. She's-."

"Going to take it from here," Arizona interrupts. "Calliope, I called Fields. She said if you call now, she'll fit you in tomorrow. I need to talk to Alex, though, alone. Please. I promise not to kill him. I couldn't now."

"Arizona..." Callie breathes as her former (future?) girlfriend brushes her fingers lightly against her shoulder.

"You should be resting, anyway."

"I'll meet you in the lobby. We'll walk back to the building together?" Callie asks tentatively.

"Sure," Arizona agrees, bringing her eyes back to Callie's with all the reassurance she can muster right now.

Callie leaves, and the door swings shut, closing in the silence. Karev stares at the scrub cap in his hands, praying for this to be a dream. He supposes there are, objectively speaking, worse women he could've knocked up than Torres. She is hot, so his kid'll be pretty, and she's rich, so his kid'll be, too, and on the spectrum of women he's slept with, she's certainly one of the sanest.

But one drunken bitchfest about his former mentor has turned into the ultimate betrayal of the only person at this hospital who ever believed had a chance. Who believed he was a worthwhile person.

Until he became the love of her life's baby daddy, at least.

Oh shit. He is gonna have a kid. Or even just _some _kid running around the hospital, looking like him.

"Look, it was just one night. We were really drunk. You were gone. I didn't mean to-."

"Stop talking," Arizona orders.

"Sorry," Alex grumbles.

"There's a baby coming," she says softly, shell-shocked. "I came back from Africa, and she's pregnant. And I wanted babies, _dreamed_ about her babies in Malawi, but not... now. Not like this. Maybe I shouldn't complicate her life. There's... There's a baby."

"I freaking know there's a baby!" Alex explodes, standing.

"Don't yell at me, Karev. I didn't do this."

"No, you just ran away and abandoned us. Her," he corrects. "I wasn't trying to get involved in your lesbian drama."

"And yet here you are. Right in the middle."

Alex crosses his arms over his chest, reaching an impasse. He relaxes just the slightest bit and points out:

"She wants you in."

"She wants me in," Arizona confirms, awed.

And then it clicks for him.

"Where do I sign?"

"Karev. It's not that-."

"Are you in?"

"I'm so in," Arizona admits, a little breathless. "The rational part of me know that's crazy, but I love her, and I'm in."

"A kid deserves that. Parents who love each other, without me screwing it up. I can sign away my rights, and you can adopt. Right? It works that way?"

"It does, Alex, but I'm not asking you-."

"I'm _offering_. My history? I've disadvantaged your kid enough as it is."

"My kid?"

"_Your_ kid," Alex nods.

"And who would you be?"

"Uncle Alex. Or no one, if you want. If you think it'd be better."

Arizona lets out a shaky sigh, eyes teary, as she practically collapses onto the other end of the bench.

"Don't do this for me."

"I'm doing it for the kid! You're twice the parent I'd be."

"I could be the mom, and you could stay the dad. I'd just be the... step-mom."

"That sounds awful, Robbins. You'd be doing me a favor, anyway. I'm not made for a kid."

Arizona sighs, struggling to accept this.

"Okay. Uncle Alex. Thank you." She wipes at her eyes. "And if you ever touch her again..."

"You were in Malawi. You walked out on us!"

Arizona arches an eyebrow.

"I won't. I promise. If you promise to take care of _your kid_."

"I promise." All the worries rush at Arizona again, and she begins to object: "But it's not fair to take it away from-."

"If it was Callie on her own, I'd step up, alright? I'm not that dick that walks away and leaves a kid parent-less, and makes Torres do it all alone. But if he's gonna have two parents, why screw that up?"

"You can be the uncle," Arizona reminds herself.

"Right. I can do guy things with it if you want. If you need. But anything more, I'll just mess it up. Tell me what to sign and I will."

"Sleep on it, okay? You can't sign anything away until after he or she is born."

"But I will."

Arizona nods, standing and heading for the door.

"Are- are we okay?" Alex asks nervously.

"I don't know," Arizona admits, wiping at her face again. "Goodnight, Alex."

* * *

><p>"Did you hear Torres is pregnant?" Cristina gossips a few days later.<p>

Alex looks up and clears his throat, while the news causes Meredith to slam a few more things into her cubby.

"I guess some people don't even have to try," she says on her way out the door.

"I wonder who the baby daddy is," Cristina muses, munching on a carrot stick. "The nurses already have a pool on when Robbins's flight to Malawi is."

"Robbins isn't going anywhere."

"Aw, devil spawn. So protective of his peds mommy."

Alex tries not to flinch.

"Why don't you just shut up about it, anyway?" he complains. "You're supposed to be Callie's friend, and you're supposed to give her a little support, not talk shit about her."

"I wasn't... Oh my god."

"What?" Alex demands.

"_You're_ the baby daddy. Holy-."

"Shut up."

"Oh my god," Cristina repeats, dropping her carrot.

"Shut up. It's not your business."

"I have to..."

"Do nothing, alright? It doesn't matter who provided the sperm. That baby is Robbins's."

"Whoa. Does that mean you're – Whoa."

"That never gonna be my baby okay? So no one in the hospital needs to know anything. _No one."_

"But I have to tell Mer."

"No one."

"You're just gonna give it away? Like a re-gifting?" Cristina asks again, dumbfounded. "It's not a scented candle or an ugly sweater, you know."

"You of all people shouldn't give me shit about not wanting to be a dad."

"Fair enough. Do you have a lawyer?"

"What? No."

"Oh. I was just asking."

"I don't know need a lawyer. I need a sheet of paper that says I'm not the father."

"You need a lawyer. And a helmet to protect you from the bricks, cause Robbins is gonna go Marine brat on your ass."

"Great."

* * *

><p>"Good morning, Callie. How are you feeling?"<p>

"Okay," the woman on Lucy Fields's exam bed answers shakily.

"Good. Are you ready to get started?"

"No! Maybe? She said she'd be here. Promised, actually. But this is a lot to handle, and maybe I pushed her too hard. Maybe she's not coming. Yeah, we should just start, because she's not coming. I've screwed this all up so much."

"Ohh- kay. Who are we waiting for?"

"My girlfriend. Or maybe not. I mean, I think..." Callie trails off, overcome by the hormones raging inside her, tears streaming down her face. "I... My girlfriend left me. To go to Africa. And I slept with someone else. Who was, obviously, not a woman." She gestures to her still flat stomach. "And now she's back, and she might be in, she said so but... I don't know. I've ruined everything."

"Okay. Is there someone else we can call to hold your hand?"

Callie whips out her phone and sends out a brief text before dissolving into further tears.

Lucy sighs and sits back, waiting for the back up as her patient sobs inconsolably on the table. Five minutes later, a tall man shoves into the door.

"Cal, what's wrong? Is everything okay with the baby?"

He immediately puts his arms around her.

"Are you the dad?" Fields asks, trying to sort all of this out.

"What? No!" the man she now recognizes as Mark Sloan says immediately.

"No!" Callie further objects.

"Unless you need me to be, Torres. Did you need me to be the dad? I can be the dad," Sloan begins.

"No!" Torres yells again. "No, I don't need you, I need Ari-."

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry I'm late. My surgery ran over and, oh, I'm so... Mark?"

The new arrival, Dr. Arizona Robbins, faces off silently with Sloan, until, sniffling and shaky, Torres pulls herself together.

"Mark, get out," Arizona orders, then continues, more gently. "Thanks for covering, but I have this."

She takes a step towards Callie and puts an arm around her shoulder.

"What's going on?"

Callie raises an eyebrow above a tear-swollen eye, and Mark shakes his head, still obviously confused by what is going on.

"Just go Mark. I needed someone to hold my hand, but Arizona is here." Her voice breaks over that beautiful truth.

"Okay. But I want, like, a picture at least."

Callie nods, and with one more worried look, Sloan slips from the room.

"Well okay, this is fun," Lucy tries to gain control of the situation. "Can we start? Is this who we were waiting on, Callie?"

Callie nods again, burying her face in Arizona's shoulder.

"Can we, um, have a minute?" Arizona asks, blushing a little.

"Oh, right. Knock when you're ready."

* * *

><p>"I'm sorry," Callie sobs into Arizona's shoulder, and Arizona's heart breaks.<p>

"What are you sorry for?" she tries for the joke. "I'm the one who was late."

"Arizona, you know what for. I thought you weren't coming. I thought..."

"I wouldn't just not show up, Calliope."

"You're still mad."

Arizona sighs, dropping a kiss to the top of Callie's head. "I am. I really am. You... slept with someone else, and well, I'll never be able to forget that, I guess. There's a tiny human to remind me."

"I know."

"And I was over there, crying all the time, missing you, thinking of you, and you were sleeping with someone else. A man, which yeah, definitely ticks me off even more, but Callie, I... I could barely breathe."

"_You_ left _me_."

"I know."

"I couldn't breathe either. I just needed to clear my head, to try to forget you, and it didn't work. It didn't work at all! In some twisted way, he was the only one who understood what I was feeling. The only one who missed you too."

"Oh, Calliope, I know, but... I... You're pregnant."

"I know," Callie sniffles. "And I'm terrified I've ruined everything. That I'll mess up this baby, and we'll never be the same again."

"Of course we'll never be the same again. There's a baby."

Callie just cries harder, clinging to her.

"You don't have to be here."

"I know," Arizona says softly, stroking her hair. "But I am. Let's get you checked out, okay?"

She knocks on the door, and Lucy comes in.

"Okay. Let's start again, shall we? How far along do you think you are?"

* * *

><p>tbc<p> 


	2. Part 2

Title: Find a Brick

Author: A. Windsor

Pairing/Characters: Callie/Arizona

Rating: PGish

Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. My one and a half years of law school could allow me to legalese this a little more, but it also tells me it's pretty useless. So please don't sue; it's not mine, I'm just playing!

Series: Standalone AU

Summary: The events of Season Seven, but slightly tweaked. How does the post 7x13 world work out when Callie drunkenly winds up in Alex Karev's bed instead?

Author's Note: Beta'd by the utterly spectacularly weirdy reindeer, roughian. Coached by the ever-patient strandedinaber. Thanks for the great response. I'm very nervous about doing the rewrite.

* * *

><p>Callie watches Arizona sleep fitfully, clinging to her. In her dreams, Arizona alternately snuggles close and then pulls away. While normally that would worry her, she files it away for later, because right now, all she can think about is the utter joy of having Arizona <em>touch<em> her again, gently and reverently, the awe echoing in her voice as it repeats in Callie's ears:

"_There was a heartbeat." "_My_ baby." "Our baby." _

She is here, miraculously here, and if it is only for tonight that she can dream of her future with Arizona and their baby, she wants to live it all in her mind.

Callie wants to be mad that Arizona left, that she came back, that she is still obviously freaking out about the pregnancy. She does. But more than anything, she wants her to stay.

They made love, slow and sweet, and then talked little. Arizona quickly fell asleep, exhausted from the rollercoaster of their last few days and the burden of her residual jetlag.

Despite all the promises whispered in the dark, Callie still feels like she's in limbo. Or more, that she's still sitting on an unsteady scale, and while right now it seems like the balance is about to permanent tip in favor of them being a family- a real family forever- she has no confidence it won't be taken out from under her, that the scales won't crash the other way.

Especially since she's already watched Arizona walk away with her heart.

So she waits and hopes and clings, the sound of the heartbeat in her ears overlaying Arizona's declaration.

She falls asleep praying for her family.

* * *

><p>"We can't see each other anymore."<p>

Alex has been having a rough, well, several months.

He's working for the girlfriend of the woman he knocked up, which would be awkward enough if she weren't also his mentor and, he thought, friend. So he's been flocking to the hot OB doc not just because he wanted to get (and has now gotten) into her pants, but because he still got to work in an area he excelled in, without constantly being confronted by Robbins's awkward, nervous, _trying-too-hard_ façade. Really, how do you treat the woman who will be raising the baby you fathered?

So to have Lucy just abruptly break it off like this? Not really the kick in the teeth he is looking for today.

"What? Why?"

"You didn't tell me you're the father of my patient's baby."

"What? Who told you?"

"Then again, I've never seen you at an appointment, and not only do I not date patient-dads, I definitely don't date deadbeat dads."

"That's not my baby."

"Seriously? _That's _going to be your defense?"

"I mean, yes, biologically, I am the father. But that's Torres's and Robbins's baby, okay?"

Lucy softens.

"I'm like, the sperm donor. Just. On accident. I can't legally sign anything until there's a baby to sign away my rights to, but everything else is settled."

"So you impregnated your boss's lover?"

Alex sighs. "It's a long story."

* * *

><p>Callie had wanted to wait to find out the gender of their baby in the delivery room, and Arizona, treading lightly with her beautiful hormone casserole of a girlfriend, had agreed. Except, she was a trained pediatric surgeon; it wasn't her specialty, but she could read a damn ultrasound. By the time Callie is twenty-two weeks along, she really just cannot pretend like she doesn't know anymore.<p>

"I think she'll be spoiled rotten."

"Don't drink that coffee, Calliope; you'll keep her up all night."

"One day she's going to want to know why her Mami thought it was totally normal to live in the basement of the hospital."

* * *

><p>One day, over lunch, Callie finally sighs.<p>

"You stopped using male pronouns."

Arizona freezes mid-slurp of her straw, looking up at her girlfriend with an extremely innocent: "Hmm?"

"You know the sex."

"I do know sex, and I am especially fond of these second trimester hormones."

"The sex, Arizona. It's a girl, isn't it? We're having a daughter."

Arizona's face breaks out into a wide, beaming smile. "We're totally having a girl."

* * *

><p>It's moments like these that Callie is sure her prayers are being answered.<p>

"Why the hell do you not want to go shopping? It's kinda the best part of expecting, right? The stuff."

"I'm not ready. I can't... I just. Please drop it."

"No," Callie grumps. This is ridiculous. She's been trying for weeks to get Arizona to start getting stuff for the baby, and she adamantly refuses. "This is dumb, Arizona. Let's just go crib shopping."

"I'm in. I'm so in, Calliope, but I... He could still not sign the papers, and I... I don't know if I could handle that. I'm so scared that if I agonize over nursery colors and stroller designs and crib bedding, that I will fall even further in love with her than I am right now, and I'm just going to have her taken from me."

"So, if he doesn't sign the papers, you're just gonna walk away?" Callie demands. She's suddenly lost her appetite for her frozen yogurt. (It's the closest thing to ice cream Arizona allows in the house, even when Callie threatens to withhold sex.)

"What? No!"

"I mean, why not? There'd be nothing tying you here. No obligations, no-."

"Calliope, no. That's not what I meant."

"Then what's the difference? I've been telling you over and over, but you won't hear it. _Our_ little girl is going to know you're her mommy, every hour of the day, and that's not going to change even if Karev doesn't sign that stupid piece of paper."

"The paper's not stupid!"

"It's not the end all, be all, either. Arizona, what's going on?"

"We should get married."

"_What?_"

"If we gonna have a baby, we should get married," Arizona clarifies, resolutely.

"Is someone holding a shotgun?"

"Calliope."

"That's the least romantic proposal I've ever heard."

"It'll help the adoption!"

"Um, crazy lady? I'm not marrying you for bureaucratic reasons."

"Why not?"

"Because I want you to propose because you are so overwhelmed with your need to spend the rest of your life with me."

"Of course I am."

"You won't even pick out cribs!"

"Fine, we can pick out the freaking crib."

"So not the point! And I also want you to, you know, _ask_."

"Oh." Arizona takes a deep breath and opens her lips: "Calliope, w-."

Callie leans forward to cover her girlfriend's mouth with her hand.

"Don't you dare. Ugh. Arizona, I am so pissed right now. I hope that couch is comfy."

"Callie."

"We are having this baby in four months. And whether or not we're married, whether or not Karev gives up his rights, _you_ are going to be a mom. So you need to sleep on the lumpy sofa and really think hard and make sure this is what you want."

Callie tries to keep her voice even, her tears at bay. If she breaks down, Arizona will hold her, and she'll forgive her, and right now, she just wants to be mad. The baby, already a little Robbins, has given her speechifying skills, and she wants to stick to her guns.

"Can I at least sleep on Cristina's bed in the nursery?"

"Fine."

Callie disappears into their bedroom and returns with Arizona's toothbrush, tossing it to her.

"I love you. Goodnight."

"I love you, too, Calliope," Arizona whispers after she's gone.

* * *

><p>Her resolve to marry Callie is just as strong the next day, but she knows she has to prove herself on the baby front first, and then plan a real, heartfelt proposal.<p>

The first part is easy. She wakes up, crawls into their bed, and says to a half-asleep Calliope:

"I think I need to clear this up. I am in. All in. No matter what, you're right, she's mine. But I am going to worry, a lot, during this, and sometimes I'm going to freak out. A lot. So I'm going to worry every second until he frees her up for me to adopt, yes, because it makes everything more secure. It proves to everybody else, not just us, that I'm her momma. Just like I'm going to worry every day about you developing gestational diabetes or pre-eclampsia or a million other things, until you don't. Just like I know exactly what Braxton-Hicks are, but every single one is going to make me bolt, sitcom-dad-style, to the car, often forgetting you."

"Okay..." Callie grins. "I think."

"The point is: I'm gonna worry 'cause I love you two like crazy, and this might not be how I imagined it. Or, mostly, _when_ I imagined it, but I can't wait to meet our daughter. And hit Karev with a brick once he signs those papers."

"Oh," is all Callie can manage, pulling her down on top of her. "You talk too much for this early in the morning."

Arizona laughs against Callie's lips, pulling away long enough to ask: "Can we go baby shopping today?"

* * *

><p>The second part of her plan, a real, heartfelt proposal, proves more difficult, because as the bump grows, Arizona finds herself increasingly overcome with her love.<p>

"Marry me," becomes a frequent follow up to, "Pass the milk for my cereal."

"No. Make me some decaf," becomes the standard response.

"Are you really going to do this?"

* * *

><p>Alex, startled, nearly drops his instruments, and he pushes the magnifying glasses up on top of his head.<p>

"You just killed the pig," he says, gesturing to the heart on his tray in the skills lab.

"Sorry, Wilbur."

She stands with her hip against the table, but Alex immediately gets up and drags over a stool for her. She's six months along now, definitely showing, a healthy baby bump more than obvious under her scrubs.

"Sit down. Robbins'll kill me even more if you're on your feet."

"You didn't answer my question, Karev," Callie reminds him, though she complies with the order to sit. "I need you to sign those papers. It means... a lot, to Arizona. "

"It's your kid. Both of yours. I'm gonna sign the papers. She doesn't believe that?"

Callie sighs. "She's scared. We're, scared. She's worried that you're doing this for the wrong reasons. That you'll realize that before you sign anything, and we'll spend the rest of our lives like this. Unsure."

"And what do you think?"

Callie grins to soften the blow: "I don't care why the hell you're doing it, as long as you actually do."

Alex allows a soft smile. He likes Torres's straight-forwardness.

"I'm sorry," she continues, "But I said I'd do this with or without you, and I'd much rather do it with her."

"Who wouldn't?" Alex jokes.

"I know I'm not supposed to pressure you. They're your rights; she's, biologically, your daughter."

"It's a girl?" Alex asks.

"Yeah." Her hands fall to her stomach. "Arizona's terrible at keeping secrets. It's just... I mean, I'm okay with her having a relationship with you. I'm okay with her knowing you're her dad. The reason I want you to sign the papers is-."

"I'm not. I'm not her dad," Alex interrupts. "You and Robbins are her parents. Whatever you want me to be, I can be, but not her dad."

"It'll stop Arizona from looking so scared all the time."

"Yeah," Alex nods. "She's... a nervous wreck. Mostly 'cause you won't just say yes when she proposes."

"I'm not going to just get married because I'm pregnant."

"Yeah, I didn't know lesbians could have shotgun weddings."

Callie rolls her eyes.

"That's dumb, though. You're just gonna get married anyway, someday. You're just torturing her cause she left you in an airport."

"I am not!"

"Are too. Just marry her already, would you?"

"Nope. How are... How are you two, doing? She doesn't really like to talk about you with me."

"Can't imagine why," Alex snarks. "I dunno. It's... We didn't do anything wrong; she doesn't really have a right to be upset, but it still feels like... I dunno. Like we hurt her."

Callie nods glumly, rubbing her stomach idly.

"We probably shouldn't think of it as anybody's fault, though, right?" Alex says. "Probably not good for the baby."

"Reading up on child psych, Karev?"

"I have to study hard, because my boss is kinda pissed at me, because when we work on cases together, the whole damn hospital just starts whispering 'baby daddy'."

"Worst kept secret in this place," Callie snorts. "Are you okay with that? We could make someone else up."

"Let 'em talk," Alex shrugs. "I'm just the sperm donor. She has to stop being mad at me someday, and at least she's letting me back on cases."

"Okay. I should get home. I just... Think long and hard about it before you do it, Karev, but please sign those papers."

* * *

><p>"I'm not going to marry you just because I'm pregnant," Callie objects to Arizona's thousandth proposal.<p>

"But I'm going to spend the rest of my life desperately in love with you anyway."

A tiny smile breaks through Callie's usual post-proposal stoicism.

"You're getting warmer."

* * *

><p>"Torres agree to marry you yet?" Alex asks over Ben Randle's chart.<p>

Slowly but surely, their easy work rapport is returning, and he's working more and more peds cases, somehow setting aside, brick by brick, the wall that has sprung up between them. And he hasn't even had to dodge any of those bricks.

"Nope."

"She's crazy."

Arizona gives him a honest-to-goodness smile, and everything's right again for just a minute.

"Run another round of labs for me, Karev."

"Got it."

He turns to leave, but her voice stops him.

"I'm taking her away this weekend. This little B&B on the coast, to have some time before the baby crazy hits."

"Nice."

"I'm going to do it then, for real."

"Rainbows and sunshine and crap?" Alex grins.

"Exactly."

"She'd be an idiot to say no. Again."

"Jerk," she smirks. "Hey, were you a... fussy baby?"

Alex freezes with his hand on the door. This is the first time they've ever really discussed the baby since their first conversation.

"Yeah," he says tentatively. "I think I was."

"Oh great," Arizona sighs, and Alex leaves her office with a little more pep in his step.

* * *

><p>"Marry me."<p>

Callie sighs, looking up from the book in her lap to meet Arizona's eyes. The suburbs are giving way to the mountains outside their car window.

"Can't we just have a nice weekend?"

"No, I had this whole thing planned out at the bed and breakfast. A whole speech and champagne and everything. But Calliope, I can't go another second without-."

"Watch—." Callie gasps.

* * *

><p>tbc<p> 


	3. Part 3

Title: Find a Brick

Author: A. Windsor

Pairing/Characters: Callie/Arizona

Rating: PGish

Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. My one and a half years of law school could allow me to legalese this a little more, but it also tells me it's pretty useless. So please don't sue; it's not mine, I'm just playing!

Series: Standalone AU

Summary: The events of Season Seven, but slightly tweaked. How does the post 7x13 world work out when Callie drunkenly winds up in Alex Karev's bed instead?

Author's Note: Beta'd by the utterly spectacularly weirdy reindeer, roughian, who worked hard for her usual dose of eternal gratitude with this one. This is the end of the road for now, putting everyone on their paths.

* * *

><p>Alex expects the worst when he's paged to the ambulance bay. Robbins and Torres hit a truck, and they're bringing them in. This is not <em>his <em>kid, but he still doesn't think he can watch her or either of her mothers die.

But when those ambulance doors swing open, they reveal a Callie and Arizona that are, yes, a little bruised and bloody, but as alive and bickering as ever.

"It's fine, Arizona. I was wearing my seatbelt."

"You're not fine! You and the baby need a full work up."

"And we'll get it, but it's your head lac I'm worried about. Mark! Fix up her beautiful face. And a CT, Shepherd. She banged her head pretty badly."

"No, you need to be looked at first, and I'm not leaving you until you arm is sutured and every doctor in this hospital has signed off on you."

Bailey lets out a sigh of relief they all share and says to Hunt:

"I think we're gonna need to put 'em in one room."

"Ya think?"

* * *

><p>They convince Arizona to separate from Callie long enough to check her out on the opposite side of the cramped trauma room. Derek runs a neuro exam on his reluctant patient, while Mark studies her nasty head laceration closely,<p>

"That's my fiancée," Callie says softly, peeking around the doctors and nurses swarming her.

"You're finally engaged?" Bailey asks, surprised. The tales of Robbins's 1001 proposals have become legend at Seattle Grace, along with Torres's 1001 denials.

Callie nods. "But she doesn't know it yet."

"Oh, good Lord. Lay back; we're gonna get this baby looked at, hmm?"

"How does she feel, Callie?" Lucy asks as she unceremoniously dumps the gel onto Callie's exposed belly.

"Good, she feels good. She was kicking earlier, but now she's pretty quiet." A sick feeling fills her as she remembers her first case with Addison. "That's bad, isn't it? Oh god."

"Let's just have a look."

"Is she okay? Lucy, is she okay?"

"Mark Sloan, if you do not push me over there _right now_, I will castrate you with my bare hands."

Arizona's voice, angry though it is, does much to ease Callie's panic.

"Me? Why? What did I do?"

"I need to see my baby."

"Hey!" Alex finally shouts. "Everyone shut up so we can hear the ultrasound. And put the freaking monitor where Robbins can see it, okay?"

The chaos dies drops off significantly, and soon the steady thrum of the heartbeat of Baby Girl Torres fills the room, garnering sighs of relief from everyone.

"We'll keep monitoring her, but she looks perfect. Sleeping, even," Lucy announces.

"Really?" Callie breathes.

"She looks great, Torres," Alex promises, realizing he'd been holding his breath, too.

* * *

><p>They all, all three of them, are given a tentative clean bill of health, though they are moved upstairs for overnight monitoring of Arizona's mild concussion and the baby's condition, just to be safe. Lucy has promised a 3D ultrasound to triple check the safety of the baby, just as soon as she is done delivering one of her patients upstairs. So they wait in their shared room, telling themselves that their orders are to rest, but no one mandated that it had to be in separate beds.<p>

Cuddled up next to a just slightly fuzzy-sounding Arizona, Callie knows her prayers have been answered. Arizona, on the other hand, is plagued by guilt.

"It's all my fault. If I hadn't been so worried about my stupid proposal-," Arizona cries, snuggled up to Callie's shoulder, careful to avoid brushing against Mark's painstakingly applied stitches.

"It wasn't stupid," Callie corrects gently.

"It was! It was -."

"Arizona. I was about to say yes," Callie interrupts softly.

"You were?" Arizona beams, and Callie nods. "Nope. We're not engaged yet."

"Arizona..." Callie complains.

"No, I want to do it right!"

"This is getting ridiculous."

"Soon. I'll do it right soon."

"What if I say no?"

"I'll keep asking."

* * *

><p>Callie has been on unofficial bedrest anytime she hasn't been working, not having the energy to do anything more than lounge on the couch and "eat bon bons", Arizona teases.<p>

Mark stops by to keep her company and ask after Little Torres from time to time, and Addison calls to check in on her. Despite her lack of energy, Callie spends most of her time bored out of her mind, either checking charts and doing consults at work or rocking in the rocking chair at home, dreaming about her soon to arrive little girl.

She's been working three-fourths time since the accident, and it is on one such lazy morning that she pads into the baby's room and inspiration strikes her. She spends the rest of the day making calls and even ventures out on an errand or two. She wants everything to be perfect by tomorrow.

* * *

><p>Arizona hurries home after a surgery gets pushed to the next day, eager to see her girlfriend. <em>Fiancée<em>, once she figures out the perfect way to ask.

When the living room is empty, she checks the nursery, where Callie practically lives these days, with all her early third trimester nesting instincts.

"Calliope?" she calls, puzzled by the lack of response.

In the nursery, only the tiny lamp next to the changing table is lit, illuminating something out of place on the soft fabric.

Resting where their daughter's head will sometime soon when they change her into her jammies for the night are a pair of rings, tied together by pale pink ribbon.

One gold. One platinum.

Two_ wedding bands_.

Callie speaks up from the doorway:

"Let's do it tomorrow. I want it done before she's here. We'll have a nice ceremony in Vancouver or Boston or _Iowa_ or anywhere it's really legal, later. With our families and friends, and all that. But let's grab some witnesses and give some signatures and..."

"Wear some rings?" Arizona grins wryly.

"I love you. I want to be your wife. And I'm sick of you waiting for it to be perfect. We're perfect together, or as close as we're going to get. Let's go get married. Or, you know, domestically partnered."

"Married," Arizona reiterates. "Eventually legally. But for now? Definitely married."

"Yeah?" Callie grins.

"Yes," Arizona nods, reaching for her Calliope and pulling her in close, pressing her forehead to hers. One of her hands slips down to press against their growing girl. "Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow. We'll grab Mark and Bailey and Teddy and Cristina and get down to the courthouse."

"And Alex?" Arizona asks tentatively.

"Really?" Callie pulls away, surprised.

"Yeah. He's... Family."

"You _just_ learned how to tolerate being in the same room with him again."

"Well I'm not saying we should move in to one big house and spend all our holidays together, but yeah, he's a part of her, and she should know that. That he's her family. Our family."

"Are you sure?"

"As long as he stays afraid of me and my bricks, yeah. He can pick his role in _her_ life. I mean, if he doesn't sign the papers, we're gonna be stuck with him anyway."

"Arizona," Callie says gently. "He's going to sign them."

"What if he sees her and how beautiful and perfect she is and just can't bring himself to do it?"

Unwilling to let this same old argument derail their beautiful moment, Callie backs Arizona into the changing table, gently, taking up the conjoined rings, which bounce together with a soft "cling".

"If that happens, we'll deal with it."

"What's on paper can't change what's in our hearts," Arizona recites her litany.

Callie smiles and undoes the loose bow, letting the rings fall into her hand. "Right. Just like whatever paper we sign tomorrow won't change the fact that I feel married to you right now. That I have forever, and I will forever."

Arizona tears up as her super magic smile spreads across her face as she nods and reaches for the platinum ring. She fumbles for Callie's left hand, sliding the wedding band into its rightful place.

"Me too."

Callie beams. "Did I just make _Arizona Robbins _speechless? You have no epic, romantic speech to share?"

Arizona shakes her head and reaches for Callie's face, desperately pressing her lips to hers. Callie returns the kiss with equal fervor for a few moments, before pulling away and searching out Arizona's proper hand.

"You need yours, too."

As Callie positions it reverently on her _wife_'s finger, Arizona finds her voice enough to whisper:

"They're beautiful. Perfect."

"Super awesome?" Callie smiles, the first honest, carefree smile she's managed since that night in Sea-Tac.

"Exactly. I love you," Arizona swears, and seals her promise with a kiss.

* * *

><p>"Wait, you're already married?" Mark asks, scratching his head. Beside him, Lexie rolls her eyes and pats his arm.<p>

"Sorta," Callie answers. "But we're going to sign our partnership papers today, and we'd really like you there. Both of you."

"Do you need a best man?" Mark perks up.

"Not today," Callie laughs. "But we're going to have a legal ceremony in DC, where Arizona's parents live, once the baby can travel, and I'd _love_ if you'd be my best man then."

"And you're sure about Robbins?" Mark has to double check.

"Positive," Callie beams. "Plus, we're already married, so it's too late to back out, and we're not getting legally _married_ for awhile, so tonight is low key."

"That is so confusing," Mark complains.

* * *

><p>"Wait. You want me to what?"<p>

"Karev, I'm asking you to _attend_ our wedding, not be the groom."

"I know that," Karev grouses. "I'm just – Me? Really?"

"You sound like Calliope."

"Can't believe she finally said yes."

"She didn't," Arizona laughs. "She asked _me_. And yes, you. You just have to come, watch us sign some papers, and be treated to dinner by Callie's dad."

"Mr. Torres is here?"

"He will be. I called him, secretly, last night, and he said he would be coming. So are my parents. It's last minute, but we can't get even sort of married without them. It's a surprise though, so don't tell Calliope."

"Uh, does he know about the, uh, baby?" Alex asks his bubbly boss,

"Of course. He was shocked of course, but he seemed to calm down a little once Callie explained that we would... Oh." Arizona smirks, a little evilly. "You mean the _how_."

"Yeah."

"Well, as much as Carlos and I would be on the same side of this one... no. He doesn't know. Callie told him we used a sperm donor."

Alex lets out a great sigh of relief. "Okay. I'll be there."

"Great! And Karev, it is one of the most important days of my life, so at least wear a tie or take a shower, or something."

Alex rolls his eyes. "Yeah, okay. Hey, if you're getting married tonight, why are you already wearing a wedding band?"

Arizona just grins cheekily and wheels away on her heeleys.

* * *

><p>"Daddy?"<p>

Arizona practically bounces beside her, which Callie knows means she was in on this.

"Oh, m'ija. Qué lindísima eres."

He enfolds her in a bone-crushing hug, and the emotions of the last few days coupled with her raging hormones leave her an utter wreck, sobbing, happily into his shoulder. Eventually, she pulls away, asking:

"Where's Mom?"

His sad eyes and apologetic smile makes everything click into place, explaining the last seven months of distant, quick conversations and telephone tag with her mother and simultaneously driving a knife into her heart. Her hand drifts to hold her own daughter; she hasn't even really met her yet and still she knows she could never do this to their little miracle.

"Oh."

"I'm sorry, m'ija. I tried. Hopefully we'll get her to come around for DC. I'm sure my nieta will go a long way towards convincing her."

"You know about DC?" Callie asks, holding onto every shred of control she has.

"Arizona told me about it, and Daniel, Barbara, and I discussed some preliminary plans on the way out."

"Daniel? Barbara?" Callie questions, turning around to see her in-laws standing proudly beside her wife.

"Oh my goodness, Callie, it is so nice to meet you in person finally, and oh! You are the most beautiful pregnant woman I have ever seen. How is my grandbaby treating you?"

The tears start all over, happily overcome, as Arizona's mom practically smothers her with her love, the easy possessiveness of "my grandbaby" filling her with warmth.

Once released, Callie is met with a firm handshake from the Colonel himself, who after a stern nod, softens and looks to the ever growing, seven-month baby bump.

"May I?"

Callie smiles widely. "Of course; she's your granddaughter."

* * *

><p>Sloan finds him poring over scans for one of his patients, arms crossed over his chest and eyes squinted in the scant light<p>

"Your kid's being born."

Alex shrugs. "She's not mine. She's theirs."

It's his mantra of the last seven months, but it seems like only he and Torres fully believe it.

"You're really sticking with this 'it's not mine' thing, huh?"

Alex shrugs again.

"I don't think I could," Sloan admits.

"Maybe that makes you the better person."

"Maybe. You don't wanna hold that little girl in your arms and know she's yours? That she'll look at you and trust you for the rest of your life? You don't want to be _Daddy_?"

"I want what's best for her. I think they are," Alex says simply. "I'll be there for her if she needs me."

* * *

><p>"Sofia after my grandmother, Jane after yours," Callie announces with finality, ending their months-long name debates.<p>

"Sofia Jane," Arizona repeats, perched precariously on the edge of Callie's bed, looking down at their daughter's sweet face. She looks back up to her wife-slash-State of Washington Domestic Partner, and whispers: "It's perfect. Oh Calliope, _she_'s perfect. She's _ours_."

Callie smiles and kisses her wife's temple. "No matter what."

* * *

><p>Sofia is five hours old when Alex comes to see them all. He walks in to Robbins rocking the newborn and Torres just <em>beaming<em> at her. He takes the offered baby, holding her for the polite period of time as the moms stand by, agonizingly anxious.

She has his mother's nose, his sister's chin, but that doesn't change his decision in the slightest.

"She's beautiful," he says, handing over Sofia to Torres, and then setting the papers, fully signed, witnessed, and notarized, on her nightstand.

Callie looks up at him with warm, wet eyes that are all the gratitude he needs to hear, but Arizona throws her arms around him, kissing his cheek.

"Thank you. I. _Thank you_."

Then she moves to her bag and pulls something out, dropping its heavy weight into his unsuspecting hand.

"There. You earned not being hit with it."

"A brick, Robbins?"

Arizona just grins.

"C'mon, Uncle Alex, put that stupid brick down and let Momma take a picture of you with Sofia," Callie beckons, trying to hand the baby back.

"She'll need it for her family corkboard," Arizona explains. "You should see the one Yang took with her." She even leans over to show him the picture on her phone, grinning and putting her hand on his shoulder.

He feels a little home, like he could be a small part of this, like he could deserve a role in this family, even if it's the same role as someone like Cristina Yang.

"Why you made Yang the godmother, I don't understand," Arizona complains towards her wife, and they fall into their bickering as Callie deposits Sofia in Alex's arms.

"We'll teach you how to use a cell phone, ASAP, so you can call me when your moms do that too much," Alex says to the newborn.

The bickering, though, gives way to a soft peck on the lips (the most PDA he's ever seen from them aside from the kiss after they signed their partnership papers), and Alex rolls his eyes, thinking Sofia isn't going to need to call her uncle very often.

* * *

><p>When he gets home, Alex takes a sharpie and writes on the brick:<p>

_Sofia Jane Torres-Robbins_

_July 29, 2011_

Then he sets it on his night table and falls into an exhausted sleep.

* * *

><p>el fin<p> 


End file.
